How to hijack an event handler?

Would it be possible to have a remote overide for 'fly by wire' civilian aircraft so that that aircraft could be controlled remotely by a party outside of the aircraft in case of emergency or hijack?

• I can conceive of problems with 'an enemy' managing to force control and other possible problems if the override option was ground based (potential for hacking, a rougue operator etc.) but with the increasing advent of fly by wire systems this should be theoretically possible if it worked on proximity (another aircraft being in close enough range of it to take control)? So  simply put, in a situation where communications are lost or hijack is suspected etc. a fighter jet would be scrambled to intercept the 'rougue' aircraft (time to intercept permitting), it would fly close enough to visually establish who has control of the aircraft in the event of radio silence / loss of communications and if neccesary would seize control of the aircraft 'wirelessly' and land it (hopefully) safely. I know that is made to sound simple and would be difficult to land in reality but perfectly possible. Drone pilots never leave their seat on the ground albeit with a whole different payload and responibilities. The civilian aircraft would have to allow control to be over-ridden based on a signature code from the military aircraft and it's horizontal proximity (up to a mile for instance). If the enemy has a fighter jet within a mile then you have bigger issues anyway. Rules Of Engagement could be set out before such a system was even implemented so a second pilot could take control without waiting for chains of command. After all the intercepting second pilot isn't aiming to destroy the plane so R.O.E. may not even apply. Scenario 1. Helios Airways Flight 522. All passengers and crew lost conciousness as the oxygen failed and the aircraft flew on into the side of a mountain after two and a half hours flying on autopilot once the fuel ran out. Fighter jets observed the unconcious crew and passengers but were powerless to intervene. Scenario 2. A 9/11 type situation. Once it has been established that an aircratt has lost legitimate control a fighter jet could be scrambled to the target and control seized. I appreciate that landing a commercial aircraft remotely whilst in a separate aircraft 'close by' would be difficult but if the controller was wearing a full HUD helmet and could even view the rougue aircraft's forward facing cameras I don't see why this wouldn't be eminently do-able. You'd be following the same trajectories as the rogue aircraft as well so it would feeel very much as if you were 'on board' the rogue flight deck. The cost in hardware would be minimal thanks to fly by wire tech already on the aircraft, the software similarly so. I'm sure it wouldn't work out in every situation but having the option would at least offer another chance in many situations. As an additional bonus anyone planning to hijack a plane would already know that the pilot would only have control until intercepted offering the 'offputting' factor before it would even be attempted. Much like the banks that can only open the safe remotely or at certain times, there's no incentive to terrorise the staff who can't actually open the safe.

• Answer:

  This is technically possible, but the number of cases where it would be useful is so rare it wouldn't be cost effective.   It would be useful in an emergency that: Incapacitates the pilots, but leaves them capable of communicating the problem. Happens in a place where there is enough communications bandwidth to the ground to transmit enough data to control the plane. There is a pilot standing by to control the plane remotely. In a situation that does not interfere with the communication or enough of the controls to hamper operation. For hijacking it would only be useful in a case where: The hijackers have taken the cockpit. The ground service is aware of the problem. The hijackers have not disabled communications.  It is very easy to jam or interfere with radio communication. What's more, this system will require lots of resources. It would have to be connected to many models of planes with a wide variety of electronic and control systems. It would require significant bandwidth. It would require a network of pilots ready to take control at short notice.  It would take hundreds to cover the US alone.  These pilots would need to be familiar with many types of aircraft. All of the transmitted data needs to be heavily encrypted.  If it's not, this is a new way for hijackers to take control. Given the limited case where it would be useful and the massive infrastructure it would take to implement this, it's not very cost effective.